Back in ye olde days I started a blog called BookBoy in which I wrote about books I was reading, along with observations about the world of books, reading, and libraries. Then I had a flash of inspiration and started ReadingHacks.com which I thought was a smashing idea. And still do. It would be filled with posts about “tips, tools, and gadgets for people who love to read”. BookBoy would be simplified to focus on children’s and young adult books.

I have found however, that I am not finding the time, energy, or inclination required to maintain both of these blogs to the standard I would like them, especially with my not-so-secret desire to also write a book or two.

With this in mind, I have decided to consolidate. ReadingHacks will take a break. Maybe it will come back to life one day. We’ll see. BookBoy will once again become my solitary blogging home (apart from my blogging at work of course). This means BookBoy will expand a bit beyond pure kid’s & YA books, but you can read about it there.

So if you don’t already keep up with BookBoy, I’d be glad to see you over there. To make it even easier, you can grab the RSS feed here. You can also keep up with me on twitter.

Post from: reading hacks

And the two shall become as one

Previously on ReadingHacks I wrote about a few book rental services, two from the US, and one, Slim Ink book rental, based here in Australia. Following that post Slim Ink invited me to try out the service for 3 months in order to provide a first hand review of their service.

The process of evaluating the service was an interesting one. I work at a public library, ie. an institution that provides a similar service to Slim Ink, but for free (unless you count late fines of course). I don’t want this review to be a “Is Slim Ink better than a library” and I don’t think the folk at Slim Ink are looking at things that way either. However, it feels natural to make some comparisons in specific areas to help highlight the nature of the service.

I will also confess in advance that a part of me initially wondered if the existence of organisations like Slim Ink are bad for libraries. I’m still not sure. Libraries provide a large range of services that could not be provided by web-based book rental service anyway. Also, if people stopped using free libraries in order to only use paid book rental services in enough numbers to cause the closure of libraries, this would clearly mean the libraries were being ineffective and need to improve their service. On the other hand, I am not sure if those who distribute funding to libraries would consider the existence of book rental services as a reason to decrease funding.

So, having got that out of the way, what follows is my take on three months of book rental from Slim Ink.

The process:

The sign-up procedure was straight forward for anyone used to filling out web forms. You do need to provide credit card details, not just for the subscription fee, but also to cover any damage to books.

After signing up, you are emailed a password and asked to add books to your reading list. This is the list from which they will choose books for you each time you are due for a delivery. I immediately added 7 books, including books 2,3, and 4 of Stephenie Meyer’s Twighlight series, which are very heavily reserved in my library. You ned to keep your reading list updated and each time you are due for a delivery, the appropriate number of titles are elected from your list.

In less than a week my first delivery arrived:

It all came packed in a padded bag. Inside were a Michael Connelly and one of the above mentioned Stephenie Meyer teen vampire romance novels. Also inside were several bits of paperwork about Slim Ink and their plans, a bookmark, a slip letting me know I had only five titles left on my reading list, a return address sticker, a roll of Slim Ink branded packing tape and a small bag of lollies (which did not last to the photo shoot).

The following packages I received were similar, with the exception of the roll of tape and introductory Slim Ink literature. They all included a bookmark or three, a return address sticker and some sort of little treat: things like a sachet of flavoured coffee, a tea bag, or a copy of Good Reading magazine.

The cheapest subscription, at $14 per month, is the Light Reader plan which allows you one book at a time. I was on the Casual Reader plan which, for $20 per month gets you two books at a time. Each delivery will include two books, and you need to return them together. The downside of this is that you will be without any books for a week or so during the changeover time. There are three more plans allowing 4, 8, or 12 books at a time, and cost $28, $42, and $60 per month respectively (of course these prices are correct at the time of writing). These three plans also allow you to return your books in smaller batches so you need never be left without reading material. All plans allow a maximum of one despatch every three weeks.

After finishing the books, you send them back to Slim Ink using the padded bag they came in, the provided address sticker, and you can even use the fancy Slim Ink tape. After a few days you should get an email telling you the titles of your next batch. You don’t pay for postage as this is included in your subscription fee.

The service
The level of service I received from Slim Ink was very good. Each batch of books was delivered promptly and came with all the bits needed to send them back. Having the books delivered to your doorstep is obviously convenient for most people, but how convenient when compared with visiting your local library is a question only you can answer. The non-existence of late fines is obviously a bonus for people who struggle to get library books back on time, but this is countered by a limit in the books you can have at one time (maxing out at 12 books on the $60/month plan)

I was generally happy with the website and there are several things about it that I would love to be able to add to my library’s site. The catalogue can be searched by author, title, ISBN, or publisher. It can also be browsed by category. The cool bit though is a set of links by which you can browse the catalogue by a group of really useful categories: latest titles by month; as mentioned in good reading magazine; books alive great read guide; various award shortlists; as mentioned on Oprah; and a few more. These links take you to a list of the appropriate titles from which they can be easily added to your reading list. Sounds simple and obvious, but very handy. There is also an RSS feed listing new titles as they are added to the system.

The collection
The collection is considerably smaller than the fiction collection of a typical public library service but very up to date. I suspect the difference in numbers is made up more of older and less popular titles. I checked a handful of authors and series with generally good results when looking for current and popular adult fiction. The young adult range was also reasonable, but again less than a public library. I got access to Stephenie Meyer’s books far quicker than I could do at the library. For a better idea of how their collection covers your tastes, you can browse the catalogue without signing up.

Conclusion
Slim Ink provides some of the same service as a public library, only differently. It has benefits and limitations when compared to the library. Obviously, it costs to join, although the lack of overdue fines is appealing. Having books delivered to your door is also very convenient, but there is a limit to how many you can borrow. Essentially, whether the service is right for you is a question only you can answer.

What I can tell you is that I was happy with the level of service provided. The website is easy to navigate, the books were all in very good condition, well packed and came with everything required to easily send them back.

Note: As mentioned, I did receive a three month membership in order to review Slim Ink’s service. I chose a selection of books to see how quickly I could get certain titles and didn’t actually end up reading most of them anyway. There is nothing in it for me if you join after this review.

Post from: reading hacks

Slim Ink book rental

How books got their titles is a blog that, as the name implies, explains how books go their titles. There is a new post every day, and they appear to be well researched.

The blog is written by Gary Dexter, author of Why Not Catch-21?: The Stories Behind the Titles

Post from: reading hacks

How books got their titles

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Authonomy, a sort of social writing and publishing site. WEbook is a similar enterprise although at first glance, there are at least two key differences.

WEbook has a strong emphasis on collaborative writing, rather than just individual writers submitting works to be voted up or down (as with Authonomy), although you can choose to write solo.

It is also a publishing company. While Authonomy is run by HarperCollins, they do not necessarily publish any of the works submitted, and there is nothing to stop the works being submitted to another publisher. WEbook will actually publish the “best books” and “you and your collaborators share in royalties on book sales”. Any work submitted however, does remain yours and you are free to decline a publishing offer if your story wins the vote.

I’d be interested to see how the collaborative side of things works out and good on them for trying it, but I really don’t know if I can be bothered reading their first published collaborative work, Pandora.

If nothing else, I’m slightly put off by a company that markets itself as “a revolutionary online book publishing company, which does for the industry what American Idol did for music”. Maybe that inspires some people. But sorry, it doesn’t do much for me.

Post from: reading hacks

WEbook collaborative publishing

One of the tough things about being a publisher, so they say, is dealing with the slush pile. Countless would-be (or wanna-be) authors are constantly submitting manuscripts hoping to get their big break. This means that publishers end up with countless manuscripts which they must read, browse, consider, and/or throw out.

HarperCollins have come up with a clever way to lessen this workload. It’s called Authonomy. Authonomy is a website that allows unpublished or self-published authors to post their work online. Joe Average then has the chance to read the manuscript and vote for their favourites. This puts HarperCollins in the position of having the slush pile sorted into books that might be worth their editor’s time to read, and books that probably aren’t. They have also done a bit of a survey of reader reaction to the book before it is published.

Clever.

It also seems however, that other publishers can also take advantage of this. There is no signing over of rights to HarperCollins when you post a manuscript and nothing to stop you also sending it off to various other publishers as you would normally do.

So if you’re a budding author hoping to get published or looking for some feedback on your work, or a reader looking for something new to read, it might be worth your while to pop over and have a look.

Post from: reading hacks

Authonomy.com – HarperCollins finds a clever way to handle their slush pile

I was about to post about a couple of things I quite liked over Bookshelf, but then decided I should just give the whole blog a bit of a plug.

The blog Bookshelf as you might expect, features mainly bookshelves along with other assorted book related pieces. While some of them don’t appeal to me, I find many of them beautiful, clever, odd, or otherwise attention-grabbing.

The two that really caught my eye this week were the book clocks and the Pisa bookshelf. The Pisa bookshelf is one I was tempted to copy and make for myself but after consultation with Mrs BookBoy we decided it probably wouldn’t fit so well in our size house.

So pop over and have a look, of course I’ll keep posting the occasional link to the things that really grab me.

Post from: reading hacks

More great stuff over at Bookshelf

I am currently wide awake in the middle of the night. In order to see some benefit from this, I’ll share a few things that have been open in my browser for the last few days:

• The Globe and Mail has an article about why reading fiction is good for us. Just in case me telling you so wasn’t enough.
• BestCollegesOnline.com have posted a list of what they consider to be the 25 most modern libraries in the world. Apparently, “Libraries aren’t just musty places to store books with librarians shushing anyone who makes a peep.”
• ReaderGear.com has come across a little rack that lets you read in the bath. Of course none of you would dream of risking this with a library book would you?
• Bookhuddle.com is a new entrant in the LibraryThing/Shelfari/etc genre of websites to list your books and interact with other readers. I’ve only had a very brief look and don’t think that it will take me away from LibraryThing at the moment. One thing I notice is a very strong Amazon connection. Amazon reviews, ratings, and descriptions appear in the book details pages and there are links to buy the books. It also automatically sets up a few “lists” for you, like “books I have read”, “books I own”, “books I want to read” etc. You can make more lists of course.

Post from: reading hacks

Insomniac linkage

When I decided to start a blog about tips and tools to enhance your reading life, it was a no-brainer that LibraryThing would get a mention early on. It will probably pop up now and then in the future too.

I assume that most people who are keen about books and have been active internet users for a while will already be well aware of LibraryThing. For this reason, and the fact that you are better of visiting the site to learn about the ins and outs, I am not really going to write a review, or overview of the site. Instead I will talk about some of the main reasons I like and use it.

For those who are not familiar, here is a brief rundown. LibraryThing is a website that allows you to catalogue your books. Of course, there is a lot more to it than just keeping track of your books. It has a strong social side, with users able to tag and review books as well as join in forum discussions. If you have not used LT, the best way to see what it does is to go and play.

Now, for the main reasons I like LT.

It is scalable.
You can use LT to whatever degree you choose. You can simply add your books so that you have a record of what you own. Or, you can add all your books then spend time tagging, rating, and reviewing them. You can participate in any number of forums and try to make friends with people who like the same books you do. You can scan and submit covers for books that are not yet in the LT database, you can provide details about books that nobody else has added. You can get in on their early reviewer program.

Although I am a big fan of LT, I would not consider myself a particularly heavy user, especially when it comes to the social networking side of things. Technically, LT was designed for people to keep track of books they actually own. I don’t even use it purely for that. Like many other library users, my LT catalog reflects books I have read, not necessarily books I own.

It is serious about cataloguing, open access, and user input
LibraryThing is not just about allowing people to keep track of their books. It is about adding what you know about those books to the collective knowledge of the community. This collective knowledge is then open and accessible to anyone. It is communal and open cataloguing.

The open, social side of LibraryThing is at its core. When you add a book, your tags become part of the larger body of information LT has about the book. If you add reviews, ratings, author photos, or other details, these also contribute to the body of data about this book. It therefore knows things like what users have a large number of books in common with you, and how other books have been tagged. Data like this can be used to recommend books that you might like – books owned by other people with similar reading habits, or books tagged in similar ways.

The crew at LT take the cataloguing side of things very seriously. They interact with the world of library professionals and are serious about being a part of the future of cataloguing, and about their users being part of it too.

It is easy to use
LT would not be nearly as popular if it was clunky and difficult to navigate. Adding books is dead easy. You can search the Library of Congress, Amazon (all five sites), and 255 other libraries around the world (including the National Library of Australia). You can search by author, by title, or even by ISBN. LT even sell cute little barcode readers so you can just scan the ISBN on the back of your book.

You can then add tags straight away. My one little disappointment with LT lies here. I would love to see the process of adding tags a bit more like Delicious. When posting a site on Delicious you can see tags you have previously used, and also see the tags used by other people for that particular site. I would love something like this on LT. If I don’t add any books for a while, I have a tendency to forget whether I have been using “junior” or “children’s”, “science fiction”, “sci fi”, or “scifi”, and so on. I would also be curious to see in advance how other people have tagged it. However I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a reason for this feature not being there. Aside from that, adding tags is simple.

Once your book is added, searching or browsing for it is also straight forward. Then you can easily look at your information about the book, or the whole community’s information, You can select or upload a new cover image. You can link straight into forum discussions that reference the book. It is all there, well laid out and easy to use.

It is constantly being improved
The LT crew are not resting on their laurels. They seem to be very busy beavering away tweaking the service and playing with new features and different ways of doing things. I love this. I think this is evidence of their passion for what they are doing. They are not just trying to build a business.

I’m sounding like a bit of a fan boy here aren’t I?

It is fun
Seriously. If you are reading this, you presumably like books and probably enjoy playing around online too. With LT you can look at a screen full of your book covers. You can chat with other people about those books. Browse the libraries of people with whom you have a large number of books in common. Get suggestions for other books. You can make a mosaic image of your covers. You can enter competitions by photographing a pile of books. Go and play – you’ll see what I mean.

It works
Everything else would count for squat if the site didn’t do what it was meant to. But it does. It works. I’m not on LT every day, but I can’t remember it being down when trying to log in. I can’t remember a bad link. It has always found books I expect it to find. Functions I have wanted to use always work for me.

So there you have it. My rave about LibraryThing. There are a bunch of other sites that offer a similar service to LT, but to be honest I have never felt the need to try them out. LT was the first one I used and I struggle to see what benefit I could gain by shifting. Maybe I’ll sign up and play with the others one day just to see, but I am extremely happy with LibraryThing.

So if you haven’t done so already, go and join LibraryThing and have a play, or visit my profile or library.

Post from: reading hacks

Why I like LibraryThing

A few weeks ago I noticed an ad in a magazine for Slim Ink book rental. Until this point, I had not been aware of this sort of service. In fact, it had never occurred to me to see if such a thing existed.

I had been aware of the Melbourne Athenaeum Library, which is a subscription based library service. A $65 yearly membership allows you to borrow 1 book at a time. There are also more expensive options that allow 2, 5, or 10 books at a time.

Slim Ink has some similarities to this, but is a web based service with all books being delivered to and from you. A quick web search turned up a couple of similar US based services too. BookSwim and Booksfree. There may well be more, but I didn’t search too hard.

All of these services operate with a similar loan policy to the one described above, with a membership allowing a certain number of books to be borrowed at any one time. Pay more, and you can borrow more. The idea is that you maintain a list of desired titles and when you return one book (or lot of books), the next available book(s) on your list are delivered.

The beauty of this system is that there are no late fines, and the books are delivered to your door. The main drawbacks from my perspective are the cost when compared with a free public library, and the limited number of books you can borrow at any one time.

The cheapest and most expensive plans for each of the three are:

• Slim Ink: $14 AUD per month for 1 book at a time, $60 for 12 books.
• BookSwim: $14.99 USD per month for 2 books at a time, $35.99 for 11.
• BooksFree: $9.99 USD per month for 2 books at a time, $37.99 for 12.

There are obviously various conditions attached along with various plans in between the ones listed above. All three services include free delivery both ways.

Whether this type of service suits you obviously depends on your personal circumstances. If I didn’t work in a public library I could see a huge benefit in their convenience. Whether I would be willing to pay $28 AUD per month for a 4 book plan (probably the minimum I would consider) is another question.

This of course raises in my mind the question about public libraries offering a delivery service. Would it be possible to provide this service for free, or a minimal cost? Perhaps only charge enough to cover postage? Perhaps I’ll have to poke around and see if I can find any that do it already.

What are your thoughts? Would you consider using a book rental service? Do you already use one? Why or why not?

Post from: reading hacks

Book rental